Tuesday, 22 April 2008

SEREMBAN: Some 60 detainees, mostly Myanmar political refugees, at the Lenggeng Immigration depot rioted yesterday, setting an administrative building ablaze and destroying office equipment in the process.

Police arrested 14 detainees - six each from Myanmar and Indonesia and one each from Cambodia and Vietnam - to assist investigations into the 8am incident.

Police believe the riot began after the Myanmar nationals heard rumours that their applications to live in another country had been rejected.

However, it is unclear why detainees from other countries were involved in the riot. It is understood the other foreigners may have just taken advantage of the situation.

State police chief Datuk Osman Salleh said the detainees first tore down a perimeter fence and entered the administrative building, located in the middle of four blocks housing some 820 male detainees.

More than 100 policemen, including 40 Federal Reserve Unit members, had to be called in to handle the situation.

They were joined by an equal number of Rela, Immigration Department and Civil Defence Department personnel.

Firemen from the Seremban fire brigade station were also called in and they managed to bring the fire under control within a short time.

"The fire destroyed several computers and furniture on the ground floor of the two-storey building. "Investigations are under way to determine if any important documents were destroyed," said Osman.

He said no injuries were reported in the riot, adding that police did not find any weapons or the substance used to start the fire.

PHNOM PENH, April 22 (Reuters) - Cambodia is on a drive to recruit bigger players for its struggling soccer side after years of being hammered by more physical teams, the country's soccer chief said on Tuesday.

Soccer federation president Sao Sokha said the impoverished country's diminutive players had little chance against bigger, stronger opponents so it was time for a complete overhaul.

"We need to have bigger and taller players to play against tough foreign players," he told Reuters.

"The new recruits must meet the requirement of (being) at least 1.7 metres tall, young, strong and able to run fast."

Cambodia's team of labourers, security guards and policemen have conceded 21 goals in their last four matches. The team has never qualified for a tournament outside of Southeast Asia.

Introduced to soccer in the 1960s by French colonialists, Cambodia were fast improvers before a brutal civil war, which included genocide under the Khmer Rouge regime, curtailed their progress and led to a 23-year absence from the game.

Sao Sokha said 30 players had so far been recruited and would be paid up to $250 a month -- eight times the salary of a civil servant.

"Lots of people like to watch the game, but it is difficult to find qualified people to play it," he said.

"I urge all parents to let their children play soccer so that it will help us to find good players -- players who can attract spectators like rock bands do." (Editing by Martin Petty and Greg Stutchbury)

CHANTHABURI, April 22 (Bernama) -- Thai traders who until recently imported paddy (unmilled) rice from Cambodia are now suffering as the Cambodian government has started controlling rice exports in the face of steadily rising demestic prices, Thailand News Agency (TNA) reported.

Sombat Jungtrakul, president of the Chanthaburi Border Trade Operators Club, said Cambodia is also facing the challenge of high local prices for rice, a problem similar to that in Thailand.

He said that the neighbouring country has imposed measures to control rice exports aimed at ensuring there would not be a rice shortage in the country.

Because of the strict measures, Thai border rice traders who formerly imported several thousand tonnes of rice each year from Cambodia -- because of prices cheaper than in Thailand -- are now unable to import paddy from that country, said Sombat.

Meanwhile, consumers in Thailand's northeastern province of Ubon Ratchathani bordering Laos have switched to eat low quality rice as the price of 'Kao Hom Mali' fragrant rice has risen to Bt37 from Bt25 a kilogramme and the price of premium grade glutinous (sticky) rice has increased to Bt27 from Bt20 per kg.

Traders in the province said they expected that rice prices in Ubon Ratchathani would jump slightly, especially during Buddhist Lent, which falls on July 18. (RM1=Bt10)

A genocide museum is to be built in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, to chronicle human rights crimes and mass killings carried out by the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s.

The museum, to be built with $US2 million in funding from the United States, is expected to feature a permanent exhibition on the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge regime, during which up to two million people died of overwork and starvation, or were executed.

The museum's curator will be Youk Chhang, who currently heads the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which collects evidence of Khmer Rouge atrocities.

He says the museum, with an associated library and research centre, should open in 2010.

"We want to help prevent genocide from happening. Genocide is happening all over the world in this new century," he said.

"By building this museum, we focus on showing genocide in Cambodia, but what we are doing is not only for Cambodia, but also for humanity."

The Khmer Rouge's notorious Tuol Sleng torture centre in Phnom Penh has already been turned into a museum.

As in other developing countries from Egypt to Haiti, soaring inflation has recently emerged as a threat to Cambodia's hard won social stability. While wages have remained low, the prices of rice and other staples have rocketed - pushing millions deeper into poverty. While the Cambodian government says it is doing its best to curb the worst effects of inflation, opposition politicians say it is not doing enough. Rory Byrne reports for VOA from Phnom Penh.

On the face of it, Cambodia's economy is doing well. Double-digit growth in recent years has created a resurgent middle class, eager to take advantage of new business opportunities.

Phnom Penh and other cities in Cambodia are undergoing a building boom and expensive new cars are everywhere. But while some are prospering, many of the country's poorest people are slipping deeper into poverty.

While the incomes of the poor have remained constant, the prices of food and other staples have risen dramatically.

Cambodia's annualized rate of food inflation hit 24 percent last month, the highest in almost a decade, and one of the highest in Southeast Asia.

Haggling in the market is fierce these days as the price of staple goods has fluctuated week by week. Prices for pork, chicken, beef, and prahok - a pungent fish paste that is the main source of protein for millions of poor Cambodians - have all jumped.

The prices of non food items - such as gasoline and cooking gas - have also increased, adding to the country's inflation problem.

But it is the high cost of rice that is causing the most concern, according to the World Food Program, which feeds almost a million poor Cambodians.

Thomas Keusters, the WFP's Country Representative in Cambodia, says the high cost of rice on the world market has led many growers to export their crop, driving up the domestic cost of the grain:

"There are not that many big exporters of rice, so obviously those who are producing rice in this country see a benefit of seeing the rice going out of the country," he said. "Secondly, in general I think there has been an increase in the cost of producing rice, so by definition, people are producing, or selling rice more expensively."

Keusters says that the World Food Program is in danger of running out of its remaining rice reserves in a matter of weeks:

"Because of the increasing cost of the food, and the insufficient support we have been receiving from the international and the national donor community, we are going to very much face a risk of stopping our operation within a matter of weeks," Keusters said.

That could have a devastating effect on Cambodia's rural poor, who make up about 80 percent of the population.

Many are poor rice farmers who only grow enough rice to feed themselves and their families for half the year

For the rest of the year they rely on handouts from the World Food Program, or they harvest wild plants and fruits from the forest which they sell to buy rice. High prices at the market mean that they cannot buy enough to feed their families.

Chanmom, 46, lives with her sick husband and three young children in a small village in Kompong Speu province north of Phnom Penh. She is the only breadwinner.

She says she sells fruit and bamboo to make a living and that is all she can do to stay alive. She says does not have any cows or rice fields, only an old house. She says it is very difficult to feed her family because the price of food and rice is increasing.

Inflation has become a highly politicized issue in Cambodia. Marchers in a recent demonstration organized by the main opposition party in Phnom Penh accused the government of not doing enough to curb soaring prices.

Sam Rainsey is the leader of the main opposition Sam Rainsey Party.

"We want the government to take appropriate measures to stop or to curb inflation," he said. And we want the government to increase salaries for civil servants, wages for workers."

The government says it is doing what it can. On the orders of Prime Minister Hun Sen, rice exports were banned for two months, while tons of surplus rice were released onto the market at reduced prices.

A ban on pig imports was also lifted in a bid to lower pork prices.

While these measures have had some short-term success, economists expect that, as in the rest of the world, prices will continue to rise over the long term. And that - the World Food Program says - could have damaging long-term consequences:

"A lot of people who are now on the verge of surviving are going to face even more difficulties to make ends meet and really survive," he said. "This is condemning, possibly, a whole lot of generations because people will not go to school, people will not go into productive activities, because they will really be constrained by their search for food."

Most poor rice farmers in Cambodia are expected to run out of their remaining rice stocks by June, at which point they will have to buy rice at the market.

Cambodia's opposition Human Right Party (HRP)'s steering committee has announced its secret negotiations with opposition democrats, nationalists and royalists have not resulted in unification, local newspaper the Mekong Times reported Tuesday.

The HRP leadership has long been discussing a possible unification with the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) and Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP), said Keat Sokun, deputy HRP president.

"We have worked secretly with locals and those overseas on unification," he said, adding that HRP officials have met with representatives of the SRP and NRP, but the effort has to date not yielded positive results.

Keat Sokun blamed the SRP for the lack of a coherent political opposition, saying that SRP representatives had claimed their party needed no help.

Still, he said the HRP remains adamant that a unified opposition would be best for Cambodia.

It's not unusual for musicians to sign on to do benefit concerts in far-flung places such a Ethiopia, Indonesia and Bangladesh and to profess lifelong support for those distressed regions, although they probably would have difficulty finding them on a map.

And that's why it's refreshing to hear pianist Ben Folds admit his initial reaction to being asked to do a benefit concert for Cambodia that takes place Wednesday at Saltair in Magna.

"There's a lot of things to be passionate about, and that's not one of them," he told The Salt Lake Tribune.

Before you accuse him of being uncaring, he added that the benefit "sounded like a good idea to me" after his agent booked him and he learned more about the cause.

The concert, presented by Rock Star Shows and the Salt Lake Rotaract Club, is for Care for Cambodia, a charity founded by the family of Rotaract Club member Jack Stringham, a pre-med student at the University of Utah, said Lindsay Hadley, president of the club.

The Rotaract Club is affiliated with the service-oriented Rotary Club, and is for young adults 18 to 30.

The Stringhams set up the charity after Jack finished an LDS mission in Long Beach, Calif., where he met many Cambodian immigrants. He and his family traveled to the Kravanh district, in the western part of the country near the Thailand border, to perform humanitarian projects in the impoverished community.

Money raised will be used to build water wells in the district, a place where one in five children die before the age of 5 from waterborne diseases. Twenty-eight wells have already been drilled with the help of the charity in that area, according to Paul Stringham, Jack's father.

A thousand dollars will purchase one well, which would serve about 70 people for a lifetime, Jack said. Because the charity has no overhead, all net proceeds from the concert will go to Cambodia. The Saltair stop is in the midst of a college tour Folds and his band are doing. He is premiering new material because his studio follow-up to 2005's "Songs for Silverman" will be released in September, he said. It will be his third studio album since the split with Ben Folds Five, a guitar-less trio that unexpectedly found success with 1988's "Brick."

Folds called his music "punk rock for sissies" as the trio blended hard-edged yet jazzy piano-based songs with alternating serious and smart-alecky lyrics.

"[The new album] is much more of the uptempo side of [2001 album] 'Rockin' the Suburbs,' " he said. "It is more lyrically akin to [Ben Folds Five's 1999 album "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner"]."

Folds said that after he learned about the charity, he liked the idea of an organization with a very specific mission. That group is better than one his 8-year-old daughter asked him to support, he said. He sent $15 to some African organization, and supposedly a tiger is now sponsored by the Folds family.

"Cambodia needs more flights from the big cities in southern China and they need to be daily," Tourism Minister Thong Khon was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The EU is also a market that is under-tapped due to a lack of direct flights, he said.

"At present we have direct charter flights from Finland and Italy, but we would like to see that grow as 60 percent of our tourist arrival by air," he added.

His comments came as Cambodia announced a 17 percent increase in tourist arrivals at about 400,000 during the first two months of 2008.

Cambodia's Siem Reap International Airport, the gateway to the Angkor Wat temple complex, currently accommodates 37 international flights per day, while the Phnom Penh International Airport handles about 30 international flights a day.

The Cambodian Independent Teachers Association on Monday requested a doubling of teacher salaries, as the cost of living continues to rise.

The price of consumer goods and fuel have put a strain on teachers, and a 20 percent raise would not be enough to cover the costs, the association said in a letter.

“If the government cannot lower the price of goods, the association asks it to double the salary of teachers to balance against the high price of goods,” said Rong Chhun, the association president.Education Minister Kol Pheng could not be reached for comment.

Chea Se, undersecretary of state of the ministry, said he did not support the request.

“As a principle, we have to ask the government to help decrease the price of goods to balance with the salary,” he said.

The higher costs of living have put a bite on many of Cambodia’s poor, straining the already low wages of the nation’s educators.

The price of fuel reached 5,000 riel per liter Monday.

Chea Vannath, former executive director of the Center for Social Development, predicted a continued rise in the price of consumer goods following the price of fuel, thanks to the country’s dependence on imports.

Foreign Minister Hor Namhong met with Chinese officials Monday to establish a bilateral relationship between Siem Reap and the southwestern Chinese city Chongqing.

“His Excellency welcomes the friendship between Siem Reap province and Chongqing,” said Hem Heng, a ministry spokesman. “The tourists between both countries have increased each day, and he informed his host about economic development of Cambodia and emphasized that these developments could not be detached from the contributions of China.”

The agreement was made between Hor Namhong and Zhang Xuan, deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Communist Party.

Chinese officials said Chongqing is known for its development of tourism and industry, including chemical manufacturing and automobile assembly.

Cambodia has a strong historical relationship with China, much of it through former king Norodom Sihanouk, who retains a residence there.

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy described political attacks on government policy and the “meaning of his political struggle” in a speech to a class at Yale University in the US Monday, where his daughter is a student, according to an SRP statement.

“Sam Rainsy spoke of the political struggle for democracy, freedom and justice in Cambodia in raising the struggle against a political dictatorship and corruption,” Eng Chhay Ieng, SRP secretary-general, told VOA Khmer.

The government continues to suppress freedom of expression and assembly, he said, adding that Sam Rainsy also pushed for the passage of an anti-corruption law.

“The current Phnom Penh government is not making a fair thing in conformity with democracy and constitutional principles,” Sam Rainsy told the class, Eng Chhay Ieng said.

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said the opposition had the “right and freedom to badly insult the government.”

“Sam Rainsy clearly knows the use of the rights and freedoms in Cambodia, but Sam Rainsy’s defamation against the government is just for good listening,” Khieu Kanharith said.

“If Sam Rainsy speaks of good for the government, the rain will pour to become a flood,” Khieu Kanharith said. “A good politician or good leader must look for its weaknesses, not blame others. If it blames others, it can’t find its weakness and can’t recorrect.”

Sam Rainsy has already apologized for defaming Prime Minister Hun Sen, in 2006, and is now facing an internal conflict ahead of July’s general election, the spokesman said.

Eleven non-governmental agencies have joined together in seeking a million signatures to push for an anti-corruption law that meets international standards.

The Million Signature Campaign is expected to be finished by the end of April, and organizers say they only lack 95,000 names.

The Cambodian government has continually failed to pass the anti-corruption law, which has been in a draft stage for a decade.

The National Assembly ended its final term ahead of general elections in July without passing the law. Yong Kim Eng, director of the Citizens for Peace and Development organization, said he expected the campaign to reach its goal without obstacles, in an effort to express the desire of the population to have the law.

The campaign has been conducted throughout 19 provinces since December 2007. Sek Borisotha, a program officer of the group Pact, one of the campaign sponsors, said the effort was important in displaying the will of the people.

Chiem Yeap, a lawmaker for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, said he welcomed the campaign.

The law has so far been delayed by the complexity of the law, the need to establish an anti-corruption committee and secretariat, difficulties in the declaration of property and discussions on proper punishment, he said.

Groups participating in the campaign hope to hand the signatures over to the National Assembly in May.

An unknown number of former Cambodian Freedom Fighters, living in states across the US, were angered by a court’s guilty verdict in the case of Chhun Yasith, but many of them are now afraid to speak out, a friend of the leader said Friday.

“I spoke to them, and they are fearful they can’t speak about anything,” Kim Narin said. “They say maybe one day [authorities] might come and knock on the door and arrest us like the Khmer Rouge did.”

A second Long Beach resident who spoke on condition of anonymity said the US trial of Chhun Yasith, who was found guilty earlier this month on charges related to an attack on the government in 2000, was politically motivated.

“I’m also afraid that US government is going to make some arrests of the CFF, and then we will see some big reaction from Cambodian Americans,” he said. “If only Yasith [is sentenced] there may not be much reaction.”

US federal court spokesman Thom Mrozek denied politics were behind the conviction, for which Chhun Yasith faces up to life in prison.

“We were not being pressured by the US government in Washington, DC, to do this,” he said. “We did this because we thought that it was an appropriate case to bring.”

Richard Callahan, Chhun Yasith’s defense lawyer, said Friday he was “greatly disappointed” with the trial result.

“The United States has prosecuted a man trying to save his suffering homeland 8,207 miles away,” he said in an e-mail. “This was a war by refugees from Cambodia against an oppressive Cambodian dictator. This was not a war against the United States.”

The number of people willing to give rice and other offerings to monks dipped significantly over the new year, as the price of goods has risen in Banthey Meanchey province, monks and villagers said.

Khmer New Year is one of the most prominent occasions for the offering of rice and drinks to monks at their pagodas, who then pass the gifts on to ancestors.

In years past, Banthey Meanchey pagodas have welcomed throngs of people, sometimes in the thousands, but this year, many of the pagodas were silent.

Buddhist monk Theon Seoun, of the famous Sopheak Mongol pagoda, said soaring food prices made it hard for people to find money and buy food for monks.

His pagoda saw fewer than half as many people as normal this year, he said.

“Not many people came to the pagoda this year,” he said, looking over a paltry collection of offerings. “The number of people coming to the pagoda decreased around 60 percent because they didn’t have money to buy the high-priced food.”

Many of Cambodia’s Buddhists attend at least two or three pagodas, but that too has decreased this year.

“With the price of food increasing dramatically, I can only go to one pagoda, or I have to spend a lot of money,” said Hy Kim Yeong, who usually makes offerings at three pagodas.

“It’s true that high food prices affected many people, and the people who go to the pagodas also decreased slightly,” he said.

But Min Khin, secretary of the Ministry of Religion, said the number of people did not decline, thanks to good security and transportation. The ministry estimates there are more than 4,300 pagodas across the country.

“Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Hor Namhong plans to sue Sam Rainsy Party president Mr. Sam Rainsy for linking him to the Khmer Rouge leadership.

“Mr. Sin Bunthoeun, the chief of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [and International Cooperation], said in the afternoon of 19 April 2008 that the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Hor Namhong will prepare documents to sue Mr. Sam Rainsy for exaggerating the facts about him. Mr. Sin Bunthoeun said, ‘H.E. Hor Namhong is also a victim, and his two sisters who returned from France were detained in the Boeng Trabaek Prison and were later taken to be killed at Choeung Ek.’ Mr. Sin Bunthoeun said that Mr. Hor Namhong plans to hold a Buddhist ceremony to commemorate his two sisters soon.

“The chief of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not know yet how much compensation Mr. Hor Namhong will demand from Mr. Sam Rainsy; he only said that Mr. Hor Namhong will meet his lawyer, Mr. Kar Savuth, on Monday and discuss it with him.

“Mr. Hor Namhong has planned to sue Mr. Sam Rainsy after the opposition party president accused him on 17 April 2008 at the Choeung Ek Killing Fields Memorial in a Buddhist ceremony to commemorate victims of Khmer Rouge. Local newspapers quoted Mr. Sam Rainsy’s speech, which said that Mr. Hor Namhong was the chief of Boeng Trabaek Prison. He continued that to become the chief of the Boeng Trabaek Prison was not by chance, unless one was authorized by the Khmer Rouge. The chief of the prison was very powerful. Mr. Sam Rainsy also accused the Cambodian government of not wanting the trial of the [former] Khmer Rouge leaders to happen. He also used the occasion to push for the Khmer Rouge trials to be held soon.

“In the afternoon of 19 April 2008, Rasmei Kampuchea tried to contact Mr. Sam Rainsy by phone but could not reach him. His assistant just responded that Mr. Sam Rainsy is at present in the United States of America, and he will return to Cambodia on 29 April 2008.

“It is known that previously, Mr. Hor Namhong won two cases, against the former King Norodom Sihanouk, and against the The Cambodia Daily over accusations that he was the chief of Boeng Trabaek Prison of Khmer Rouge times.”

IT IS a long way from being Horowhenua royalty to winning over the universe, but that is the goal for the newest Kiwi beauty queen.

Samantha Powell, a 20-year-old bank worker from Paraparaumu, scooped the Miss Universe New Zealand crown in Auckland on Sunday.

The reigning Miss Horowhenua beat 11 other contestants in the week-long battle of beauty.

The competition - which stretched into the early hours of yesterday morning - gave Miss Powell a chance at world, if not universal, domination in Vietnam in June.

Challenges for the contestants included a round of golf, a trip to Waiheke Island and some gruelling interview questions, Miss Powell said. "They were things like: if you were to choose a country to give humanitarian aid to, which one would it be? And how would you cope if you were competing at Miss Universe?"

She told judges she would like to visit schools in Cambodia and Vietnam and try to increase awareness about the importance of education.

An extra challenge for her was her height - 1.78 metres (5 feet, 10 inches).

"Because I was one of the tallest, I was usually first up for everything."

As for whether beauty pageants were demeaning to women, Miss Powell was clear. "Not at all."I feel it's great for young women.

"Beauty is on the inside and outside. It's good for your confidence."

Judge Jack Yan agreed, saying brains were becoming more of a feature in pageants and the women had to be all-rounders.

"Obviously, they're all very beautiful ... but I like to think we can spot a phoney."

Mr Yan - who described himself as the equivalent of American Idol's notorious judge Simon Cowell - was heckled after quizzing the women about globalisation and the concerns of young people.

In the end, Miss Powell had been chosen because she had "X-factor" qualities - including a "very good conscience", Mr Yan said.

Miss Wellington, Rebecca Connor, also finished in the top five.

After peaking in popularity in the 1980s, beauty pageants fell away for years before making a comeback in 2006, Mr Yan said.

Leigh Blenkhorn photo Stephanie Burton and Kathy Slessor are collecting supplies for the North Country Baptist Children’s Home in Cambodia. The home can accommodate up to 100 children, keeping them off the streets and providing education.

The North Country Baptist Children’s Home in Cambodia can accommodate 100 children, but there are only 17 kids currently living there.

Due to limited funding and a lack of supplies, the home, which provides shelter and an education to children living on the streets, cannot function as it should.

Two Barrie women, Kathy Slessor and Stephanie Burton, are hoping to change things by giving the home what it needs.

“The home will keep kids off the streets, out of the sex trade and give them a good education,” said Slessor. “It’s helping mould that country’s future leaders.”

The two women are looking to fill a transport truck-sized container with donations of bunk beds, cribs, bedding, clothing, cloth diapers, toys and school supplies.

New or used items are being accepted, though new items would be best, as it is hoped these pieces will last for many years to come.

They are also accepting cash donations to help with the shipping and donations to sponsor a child for $100 a month.

So far only two of the 17 children at the shelter have sponsors.

Slessor has a close personal connection with the North Country Baptist Children’s Home (NCBCH). In February 2006, her brother-in-law Pastor Len Crow, of Orillia, visited Cambodia.

After seeing the conditions children live in, Crow decided to partner with a Cambodian church and build the NCBCH, which opened in June 2007.

After his return, Crow told Slessor stories of the children, including the story of brothers who were living alone in a market place stealing food from vendors.

The brothers were three and four years old.

“All these kids have a story,” said Slessor.

Slessor said it is common for Cambodian children to be left on their own to live on the streets, where many die of starvation.

Another trend is for impoverished parents to sell their children, often to buyers in the sex trade.The Cambodian government has currently closed international adoption of the country’s children in an effort to stop the kids from being sold into the sex trade.

The idea to collect donations for the home came to Slessor as she celebrated Christmas with her family. “To look around and see how well off we are and to think of what those children are going though made me realize that something has to be done,” she said.

It was when Burton and her children came over for a play date that the two women decided to start their campaign.

“When I saw some of the photos of the kids, I couldn’t get those little faces out of my mind,” said Burton. “I wanted to bring them all home. But because international adoption is closed, we have to help them where they are.”Slessor said the hope is to have the filled container shipped by the end of June so it will arrive in time for Crow to hand out the supplies on his next visit, in September.

Paintline Products Inc. in Barrie has donated space to keep the items until they can be shipped.Slessor and Burton will also be holding a garage sale in coming weeks to help raise funds to cover the $3,000 to $5,000 shipping costs.

For more information or to make a donation call 730-6977, or send an e-mail to ncbch@live.com.

Nuth Nurang, Secretary of State at Cambodia's Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction said: has revealed that the government is considering an amendment to Cambodia's law that would allow foreigners to buy property in the rapidly emerging market freehold. Currently the best option for foreigner investors is to buy on a leasehold tenure of up to 99 years. Another option is to form a company with Cambodian partners - this carries complex tax issues and needs to be considered carefully.

David Stanley Redfern's French Colonial Apartments in Cambodia's growth centre, the capital Phnom Penh are on a 99 year leasehold tenure. The contract includes the option to buy the properties freehold if and when the law is amended - experts predict that foreigners will be buying freehold in Cambodia before this year is out, likely a lot sooner.

Foreigners being able to buy property freehold would blow the Cambodian property market wide open. Bouncing back from the brutality of the Khmer Rouge gives Cambodia's emergence a vibrancy and vitality all of its own. From the children in school upwards there is a drive and determination to put Cambodia where it should be on the global scene, and to make sure the thousands who were killed didn't die in vane.

Most of Cambodia's male population is under the age of 25, as a result of Khmer Rouge mass murders, and the aforementioned drive means every child in school is there to learn as much as they can and to be all they can be. I'm not sure how much of an attraction this is to the multinational companies currently flocking into Cambodia, probably not as much of an attraction as the low cost of living and potential for a low cost workforce.

Either way it is good for the Cambodian's. Multinational companies are not only setting up shop in the emerging market, but are making Cambodia their S.E. Asian operations hub. I asked an incredibly knowledgeable source, who is well travelled in Asia but unfortunately can't be named, how much the big companies pay the local staff they employ in the lower positions, more than Cambodian's would normally make, or the absolute bare minimum.

I learned that they -- especially the big banking operations -- often have to pay more to get the best out of their workforce, and they are also giving perks like health insurance and dental plans. And that because of Cambodia's better-than-you-might-expect education system, combined with the aforementioned determination that permeates Cambodian society, often the staff are getting promoted and getting pay-rises to keep them in the company.

When things like this are happening the economy is regenerating all the time, especially in the world's main growth hot-spot and a place experts believe will enjoy sustained growth over at least the next five years.

The Cambodian's in stable and well paid employment have money to spend on their accommodation rented or bought, spending their wages is spreading money throughout the business sector, living costs start to go up, meaning building materials start costing more, labourers and tradesmen get closer to what they should for their hard-labour - all pushing up the value of Cambodian property. A prediction for the future might be some of the big car companies opening operations in Cambodia - watch this space for that and be the first to know the minute freehold ownership is possible for foreigners in Cambodia.

Cambodian Buddhists monks stand in front of a memorial stupa displayed with more than 8,000 skulls of victims of the Khmer Rouge at Choeung Ek, a "Killing Fields" site located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh April 17. (Photo: Reuters)

By KER MUNTHIT / AP WRITER / PHNOM PENHMonday, April 21, 2008

A French lawyer who defended terrorists and a former Nazi officer arrived in Cambodia on Monday to represent a former Khmer Rouge leader.

Jacques Verges, dressed in a dark brown suit, declined to comment and only said "go to the court" before being whisked away in a car after his arrival at Phnom Penh International Airport.

Verges will join a Cambodian attorney to argue former Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan's appeal against his pretrial detention.

The UN-assisted tribunal has held Khieu Samphan since Novvember 19 on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from atrocities committed under Khmer Rouge rule in 1975-79.

The communist group's radical policies led to the deaths of some 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution.

The tribunal is expected to hold its first trial later this year.

Khieu Samphan is one of five former leaders of the group held for their alleged roles in the atrocities. He has repeatedly denied any involvement.

Verges has won international notoriety for his past efforts in defending criminals such as Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal, confessed serial killer Charles Sobhraj and Nazi Gestapo officer Klaus Barbie.

He is an old friend of Khieu Samphan, a French-educated intellectual with whom he shares a left-wing outlook.

Khieu Samphan has said he has known Verges since he attended university in France in the 1950s, when both were active in student movements against French colonialism.

"He and I used to attend meetings of student committees against colonialism. That's what bound us together in friendship," Khieu Samphan said in a 2004 interview with The Associated Press.

Khieu Samphan's defense team also includes Say Bory, a Cambodian lawyer who used to serve on the constitutional council, the country's highest legal body.

Say Bory said the defense is challenging both the tribunal's grounds for detaining Khieu Samphan and its arguments implicating him in the Khmer Rouge's atrocities.

Jacques Verges, a.k.a Monsieur Guillotine because that’s were most of his clients tend to wind up, landed in Cambodia today on a mission to defend Khieu Samphan.

A French lawyer who defended terrorists and a former Nazi officer arrived in Cambodia on Monday to represent a former Khmer Rouge leader.

Jacques Verges declined to comment and only said “go to the court” before being whisked away in a car after his arrival at Phnom Penh International Airport.

Verges will join a Cambodian attorney to argue former Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan’s appeal against his pretrial detention.

If nothing else, Monsieur Guillotine should liven up the activities out in Kambol. Save for the odd “heart attack” alarm, the proceeding so far have been rather uneventful. Verges has made a name for himself by defending the planet’s most vile criminals, often by employing outrageous claims and his trademark “attack the prosecution” style.

From the moment of his birth in 1925, in Thailand, Vergès had experienced racial hatred firsthand. His father, Raymond Vergès, a French doctor and a diplomat, had lost his job because he married a Vietnamese woman, something Frenchmen were simply not allowed to do in those days.

His comments came as Cambodia announced a 17 percent increase in tourist arrivals at about 400,000 during the first two months of this year. Tourism is a mainstay of the economy.

“Cambodia needs more flights from the big cities in southern China and they need to be daily,” he said by telephone. “The EU is also a market that is under tapped due to a lack of direct flights.”

“By 2020 an estimated 100 million Chinese are expected to travel the world. If we can snare just 5 percent, we’ve got 5 million Chinese tourists,” he said.

Siem Reap International Airport, 300km north of the capital and the gateway to the Angkor Wat temple complex, currently accommodates 37 international flights per day, he said.

But the French-Malaysian concession company Societe Concessionnaire de l’Aeroport — which manages the Siem Riep airport — has announced expansion plans, and the government is keen to capitalize.

Phnom Penh International Airport handles about 30 international flights a day, and the Sihanoukville airport, which is 240km from the capital and services the southwestern beach resorts, is also being set for major expansion.

“The EU is also a place with great tourism potential. At present we have direct charter flights from Finland and Italy, but we would like to see that grow as 60 percent of our tourists arrive by air,” he said. “To attract more tourists, we have to put Cambodia on the map.”

PHNOM PENH, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia opposes attempts by the Dalai clique to sabotage the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing by making use of the Tibet issue, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong said on Monday.

Cambodia also opposes any foreign interference in China's internal affairs, said Hor, who is also minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, during a meeting with a visiting Chinese delegation.

The Olympic Games have nothing to do with politics and Cambodia fully supports China's hosting of the 2008 Olympics, Hor told the delegation headed by Zhang Xuan, deputy party chief of China's Chongqing city.

King Norodom Sihamoni will attend the games' opening ceremony in Beijing, he added.

The Cambodian government has consistently adhered to the one-China policy and opposed Taiwan independence, he said.